StarDestroyer.Net BBS

You're talking to an undertaker now. You're pretty much correct; the blood is drained out of the carotid artery as the embalming fluid is pumped in. And yes, embalming fluid is very dangerous.

kojikun wrote:When your brain turns off. Even if it can be restarted, you're not just your thoughts, you're your uninterrupted thoughts. Restarting your brain would be like making a replicated copy -- same thoughts, different entity.

What about the frozen frogs example?

Darth Wong wrote:You are dead when the sight of a beautiful woman no longer excites you.

So gay people and straight women are dead?

You're all figments of my imagination, so you're dead when I think it.

That is the problem with fluent, gradual changes. I think its impossible to specify the exact point, where life ends, just as it is impossible to specify the exact point where life starts. Are two cells inside a mothers womb alive? Where in the following nine months does life start? All kinds of people tried to give an answer on these questions. But the human mind is to much fixed on decision lines. We'd like to have a point where we could say "Until now it was living, now it is dead." But I don't think there is such a point.

I'd say total 100% brain death occurs when the brain cells use up what remains of their energy reserves and thus can no longer maintain cellular integrity. Nothing is bringing you back from that point.